July 12 - Bridgeport/South Lake Tahoe

End: Sonora Pass!!
Daily: 16.4
Total: 1018.5

We made it! Another hard day, but doable, obviously.

We woke up and had generally snow free trail for about 5 miles. Every snow free step felt like a freebie. We can definitely see how people can do 30 miles in Oregon now because every snow free mile is so easy.

Then we had to climb up something called the "Elephant's Back" which was part of a ridge that stood out from the rest of the Sierra because of the red, volcanic looking rock (as opposed to the silver granite we've been seeing). That was really hard, and a lot of the traverses were covered in snow and really steep. I had to self arrest twice. It was beautiful, though, and once we got to the top we spent the day hopping from one side of the ridge to another, threading through tiny passes. We could see the road from about 6 miles back but the trail didn't take us there until we crossed the ridge two more times. We finally glissaded about a few hundred feet down the hill and made it out to the road, where we met Made in Japan, who said he hadn't seen anyone around that matched Chris's mom and Rich's description, so we knew we'd beaten them there. Hooray!

We tried to hitch until Rocklocks, Mr. Fox, Annie, and Ramble On walked up and Rocklocks talked a couple who stopped at a turnout into fitting us all in their car. We rode down to the junction of 108 and 395, where they dropped us off and drove off. Two minutes later, they turned around and said they hadn't realized they were going towards Bridgeport too, so we all piled back in and they took us to Bridgeport.

We thought we had screwed up and missed Chris's mom at the junction, but then Chris spotted them in Bridgeport and they came and enjoyed dinner with all of us (6 thru-hikers) and then picked up the whole check. Everyone was so touched. That means a lot to thru hikers on a budget.

Then we rode back to South Lake Tahoe with them and spent the night in their hotel, while they help us out getting our stuff done. And we got to upload all of our pictures to Rich's computer, so I know we'll never lose them at least. I'm glad this week worked out.